Parker Raises The Bar!

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New Record Qualifying Speed in Sport Division

Setting the bar considerably higher than his record setting first place 349.507MPH qualifying run in 2004, John Parker of American Air Racing has again rewritten the record book with a blistering 361.921MPH run. What is truly amazing about Parker's showing is that this is considerably faster than several Unlimited Division early qualifying results!

At the time of this report, neither of the NXT airplanes or Darryl Greenamyer have made their qualifying runs. Parker's surprisingly fast speed certainly makes the rest of the week even more intriguing than it was before!

In other qualifying news: John Penney "took the clock" and turned in what he said was a disappointing 470.765MPH run. Shaking his head as he walked by us after the flight John's only comment was "we've added some new technology and we're working on understanding it". Hanging round afterwards with my ear to the tracks, I was able to learn that for some reason, they are not getting the boost that they should out of the Bear's R-3350... It might well be that the reshaped wing inlets are the culprit.. Stay tuned for more on this one.

Tiger Destefani's Strega sat the day out with her crew working hard to repair the radiator. The team finds themselves in the ironic position of having three good engines and one radiator.. and now it decides to act up! As of late Monday afternoon, an early Tuesday AM flight was expected.

September Fury, unfortunately, is going to be a no show for 2005. After much work by the crew dealing with bad cylinders and other mechanical gremlins, they have had to make the decision to stand down for the year and concentrate on their two healthy airplanes, September Pops and Bossman. This will come as a great disappointment to the Round Engine and Sea Fury fans but there's still plenty of action on hand at the Reno National Championship Air Races!

In the Biplane Division, the much awaited battle between Phantom and Jeff Lo's new "Miss Gianna" hybrid Pitts officially began with Andrew Buehler turning in a 232.71MPH effort, somewhat slower than Tom Aberle's 241.05MPH from last year's qualifying run. Aberle won the division last year at 237.932MPH. Both Phantom and Miss Gianna will run very trick props for 2005... Lo has yet to see what his can do having only gotten it on Monday morning.

Qualifying continues Tuesday and we're missing it sitting here tapping these keys so we'll leave you with some photos and be on our way out to the Reno Stead Airport, home of the world's fastest motorsport!

Unless otherwise noted
Story and photos by Wayne Sagar